


Not just at midnight

by Ellessey



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Birthday Fluff, Canon Compliant, First Kiss, Getting Together, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-01
Updated: 2018-01-01
Packaged: 2019-02-26 08:59:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13232412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ellessey/pseuds/Ellessey
Summary: “You miss me, Asahi-san?” Nishinoya asks, with that teasing smile that always settles in Asahi’s stomach like a hot coal.Helovesit, but he isn’t sure if it’s okay that he does. He’s not sure why, with the way Nishinoya looks at him sometimes, and the way they both seem to sit a little too close to each other when they work on homework together, he wouldn't come to Asahi’s birthday party. He hates to think that—it sounds so childish, so petty—but he wouldn’t miss Nishinoya’s birthday for anything, and then...well, Nishinoya hasn’t actually missed his either. He’s right here, standing in Asahi’s front room with bright red cheeks and cold hands that Asahi wants to hold.--Nishinoya isn't at the team's birthday/New Year's Eve party, and Asahi finds that this matters to him very much. He also finds that Nishinoya missed it for a very good reason.





	Not just at midnight

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Birthday to the most precious Ace <333

It’s not that it’s a bad party. It’s _nice,_ really, for a party. Not exactly Asahi’s favorite way to spend his time in general, but this one is pretty quiet, with just the guys from the team and some music playing. Inside jokes that he’s a part of, and comfortable laughter. It’s a good way to celebrate both his birthday and Daichi’s, since they’re back to back, and he wishes he could just enjoy it. He wishes he could focus on what Suga’s saying, instead of looking around, checking the entrance of Daichi’s house for the fiftieth time, just in case a small, bright face appears there.

It just seems strange, for multiple reasons, that Nishinoya isn’t here. Not that he’s obligated to be there or anything, but...well they _are_ friends. All of them, not just he and Nishinoya. They’re a team, and everyone else is here except for him. So Asahi is just a little distracted, a little bit disappointed, though he knows he shouldn’t be. He knows it doesn’t mean anything that Nishinoya isn’t here. It wouldn’t have meant anything if he _was_ here. And if he was...it’s not like Asahi would have gotten to kiss him at midnight or anything.

Though he would like to. Quite a bit.

“Asahi?”

“Ah...sorry, Suga, I was just—”

“Ignoring me,” Suga says with a knowing smile, one that is also sweet enough to prevent Asahi from feeling too badly about the fact that his friend is right. “And daydreaming?”

“No,” Asahi lies, wiping away the hazy image in his mind in which he is leaning towards Nishinoya, and the other boy is maybe stretching up on his toes. “How do you do that?”

Suga just smiles again and pats his arm. “What’s on your mind, Asahi?”

Asahi fears that Suga already knows exactly what’s on his mind, and he doesn’t particularly want to talk about it right here and now. He actually, though the party _is_ nice, would kind of prefer to just...not be here anymore.

“I think I might go?” he says, not answering Suga’s question.

“It’s still half an hour till your birthday.”

“I know, but...would you mind? I don’t want to be rude, I just—”

Suga waves a hand at him. “It’s fine,” he says. “I don’t think everyone’s going to make it till midnight anyway.”

Asahi looks around and sees that Suga is correct. The second years are going strong, but Yamaguchi and Hinata are leaning against each other on the couch, somehow drifting into sleep while Tsukishima and Kageyama play another vicious round of Mario Kart. Daichi is ostensibly listening to Narita, but he’s leaning very heavily on the kitchen counter behind him, and looks like he’s struggling to keep his eyes open. Asahi nods gratefully at Suga and goes to wish Daichi a last Happy Birthday, giving him a quick hug and thanking him for hosting the party.

If it were a different night, if Asahi hadn’t spent the whole of it wondering about Nishinoya, and about how much it _bothered_ him that he wasn’t there, Asahi would probably just stay here tonight. Camp out on the cot on Daichi’s floor like he has plenty of times before.

“You’re not staying?” Daichi asks, because to him this is like any other night. He doesn’t know that Asahi’s brain has been quietly imploding for the past three hours.

“Not tonight. I think I’m...maybe coming down with something.”

Daichi raises an eyebrow at him. Asahi is not the best liar. “Okay,” he says, and then he exchanges significant glances with Suga across the room, and turns back to Asahi with an expression that is less curious now, and more suggestive of knowing a secret. Asahi loves his fellow third years a lot, but sometimes they drive him absolutely insane. “Feel better then, Ace.”

Daichi _knows,_ Asahi is sure, but he pretends he doesn't notice this. Just nods and mumbles his thanks, saying a quick goodbye to the rest of team before seeing himself out.

It’s a chilly night. No snow, but crisp and dark, and he walks with his arms wrapped around himself, head ducked down against the breeze. It’s not until he’s gone all the way up the driveway of his family’s home that he sees it, the small figure huddled over on the steps of the front porch.

“Hey!” Nishinoya greets him, before Asahi can say anything. He hops to his feet, smiling at Asahi with lips gone slightly blue from the cold.

“What...what are you doing here?” Asahi asks, resisting the urge to pull the little libero into his jacket and warm him up.

“Ah...I was hoping your parents would be home and I could wait inside. I just...can we go in?”

“Yes,” Asahi says, hurrying to fit his key into the door. “Of course, but...why are you here? Why weren’t you at the party?” He gets the door open, and they both step gratefully into the warmth.

“You miss me, Asahi-san?” Nishinoya asks, with that teasing smile that always settles in Asahi’s stomach like a hot coal.

He _loves_ it, but he isn’t sure if it’s okay that he does. He isn’t sure what it means that Nishinoya stays late after practice sometimes to help clean up and walk home with Asahi. He’s not sure why, with the way he looks at Asahi sometimes, and the way they both seem to sit a little too close to each other when they work on homework together, he wouldn't come to Asahi’s birthday. He hates to think that—it sounds so childish, so petty—but he wouldn’t miss Nishinoya’s birthday for anything, and then...well, Nishinoya hasn’t actually missed his either. He’s right here, standing in Asahi’s front room with bright red cheeks and cold hands that Asahi wants to hold.

“I, uh...I did,” Asahi admits. He couldn’t have said that if they weren’t alone. He’s a little surprised he’s managed it even now, and his stomach twists instantly in response to launching that little bit of embarrassing truthfulness out into the universe.

Nishinoya’s eyebrows fly up, like he wasn’t expecting it either, but then he smiles, in that warm way he does when Asahi is nervous about a game, or about anything, really. That way that makes his stomach settle a little, because Nishinoya doesn’t think he’s being silly. Because he seems to know that Asahi will be just fine.

“Me too,” Nishinoya says. “Asahi-san, can I be honest with you?”

Asahi swallows. That always feels like such an ominous start to a conversation, and his stomach is clenching up all over again. But Nishinoya’s still smiling, nervously now, which is uncommon for him, and really....really very cute. “Sure, yeah. Do you...let’s sit down?”

Nishinoya nods, perching on the edge of the coffee table after Asahi sits on the couch, so they’re knee to knee, almost touching. “Have you ever kissed anyone at midnight?” he asks suddenly. “Like...on New Year’s Eve?”

“Um...I...n-no.”

“Me neither,” Nishinoya says. “Never wanted to. This year’s the first time—” He pauses, biting his lip as he meets Asahi’s eyes, and then pressing on again. “It’s the first time I’ve had someone I wanted to kiss. And I realized...well I knew that if I did that at the party, with everyone there...it would maybe make that someone uncomfortable.”

There is a lot going on inside of Asahi at the moment. So much it almost makes it hard for him to focus on Nishinoya’s words, but he does his best. He digs his nails into his palms and tells himself to breathe, because this is important. This is not something he wants to fail to catch because his thoughts were taking all his attention.

“You know I mean you, right?” Nishinoya says. “I’ve got such a huge crush on you Asahi-san, like _huge,_ and I—”

“You want to kiss me?”

Nishinoya smiles again, probably at the disbelief in Asahi’s voice. “ _Yeah..._ Asahi. You knew that, too, right?” he says, more softly now.

Asahi supposes that he did, in a way. He supposes that’s part of why he was so disappointed that it was his first New Year’s Eve where he wanted to kiss someone, too, and that someone wasn’t there.

“I hoped,” he says. “A lot. Nishinoya...”

“Two minutes,” Nishinoya says.

“Huh?”

“Till your birthday. I didn’t get you anything, ‘cause I was kinda hoping...well, it sounds pretty arrogant now, but—”

Asahi smiles this time, letting his knees bump Nishinoya’s. “You’re giving me a kiss for my birthday?” he asks, blushing furiously, and ignoring the very intense butterflies in his stomach. He can’t help being nervous, but he can refuse to let that make him miss this.

Nishinoya blushes a little, too, which is even more cute than his nervous smile. “I mean... _yeah,_ but also....me?” he says. “Like...shit, that sounds awful, not in an inappropriate way, not _yet,_ but like...oh, God.” His eyes have gone very wide, and Asahi is so painfully familiar with how he feels right now—with words coming out all the wrong way—but he knows exactly what he means.  

“Like...you want to go out with me.”

“ _Yes,_ holy fuck I don’t know why I didn’t just say that.”

Asahi’s grinning now, reaching for Nishinoya’s cold hands without really deciding to. “I’d like that,” he says. “That’d be...a perfect gift.”

“Yeah?” Nishinoya asks. “I’ve never actually been a boyfriend before, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be a damn good one. For you.”

“Yeah,” Asahi says. “I’m pretty sure you will, too.”

He’s never been a boyfriend before either. Definitely never kissed anyone. But he thinks this might be something he doesn’t have to worry about being good or bad at. He thinks this might be something he can just _do,_ without agonizing over or analyzing endlessly. Because Nishinoya is his friend, and he makes him feel good, and Asahi spent the whole night missing him and wishing he’d walk through the door for a reason.

“It’s midnight,” Nishinoya says.

And so it is, and the someone he wants to kiss is right here, hands held warm in his own now, closing his eyes and tipping his chin up just the way he has in Asahi’s daydreams.

This is so much more than that, though. Nishinoya’s lips are cool and a bit chapped, and he tastes like winter, and celebration, and a little like mouthwash. Like he was ready for this. Because while Asahi was hanging around that party wishing he could kiss Nishinoya, could be in a position to kiss Nishinoya any time, and not just at midnight on one night of the year, Nishinoya was already planning to give him exactly what he wanted. Because—and this is the best part—Nishinoya wanted it, too.

Asahi has never started his birthday like this before, but now he doesn’t think there could be any better way.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I'm [ellessey-writes](http://ellessey-writes.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr, and you can find my other AO3 AsaNoya works [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works?utf8=%E2%9C%93&commit=Sort+and+Filter&work_search%5Bsort_column%5D=revised_at&work_search%5Brelationship_ids%5D%5B%5D=1362296&work_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=&work_search%5Bquery%5D=&work_search%5Blanguage_id%5D=&work_search%5Bcomplete%5D=0&user_id=Ellessey).


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